State and Local News, Orange County Observer, 1908

From the Orange County Observer, Hillsborough, N.C., Thursday, March 26, 1908. Joseph A. Harris, publisher and owner.

Gen. B.S. Royster of Oxford is a candidate for Congress in this district.

Mr. T.B. Parker of the State Department of Agriculture, widely known as a practical and successful farmer and a working Democrat, is a candidate for nomination for Commissioner of Agriculture at the hands of the Democratic party.

The War Department at Washington has issued the following order: “The field or union of the National Flag in use in the army will, from after July 4, 1908, consist of 46 stars in six rows, the first, third, fourth and sixth rows to have eight stars, and the second and fifth rows seven stars each, in a blue field. Oklahoma was the last State admitted into the Union, making 46 States in all.

State Labor Commissioner Varner says that great numbers of people are now out of work all over the State and that there is not a kick about scarcity of labor. He says many persons are going back from the towns to the farms and that this movement is quite a large one and growing. A number of these people have little farms in the country which they gave up in order to flock to the towns and the movement back was a very healthy and desirable one.

February holds the record as the month in which the largest number of children are born; June is that in which there are the fewest births.

Durham Sun—The year 1908 bids fair to rival 1907 in the matter of casualties, such as fires, bloods, railroad accidents, etc., in various parts of the country if things so far can be taken as an indication. The worst horror yet reported in 1908 was the terrible holocaust March 5 at Collinwood, Illinois, in which 174 school children lost their lives.*

Capt. S.A. Ashe of Wake has announced himself as a candidate for State Treasurer and Hon. Benjamin F. Aycock of Wayne has announced himself as a candidate for nomination for Corporation Commissioner to succeed Mr. Beddingfield who will not be a candidate for re-election. Both gentlemen are loyal Democrats and worthy of any trust that may be conferred upon them by the Democratic party.

Durham Sun—Mr. J.M. Blackwood, an old citizen of Durham who will soon leave for Louisiana to reside with his son, Mr. Willie Blackwood, went to Blackwood, his old home this morning to spend a few days with relatives and friends. He will return to Durham the latter part of the week and, accompanied by his daughter, Miss Pearl Blackwood, will leave for his new home.

State headquarters have been opened at Raleigh for the campaign of Hon. Locke Craig for the Democratic nomination for Governor. Mr. J.P. Kerr of Asheville is in charge.

Senator W.J. Bryan of Florida, the youngest member of the United States Senate, died in Washington City last Sunday. This makes seven Senators that have died within 20 months.

Hon. Benjamin R. Lacy, State Treasurer, says he will again be in the race for the office he now holds, and wants all of his friends to get busy. The Observer wishes for Mr. Lacy a safe deliverance.

By a vote of 255 to 5 the House of Representatives at Washington on March 16 passed the bill resorting to gold coins the motto “In God We Trust.”

Raleigh Evening Times—You might complain at the Legislature of 1907 but it certainly took a tremendous step forward in the matter of education. There are now 156 high schools in North Carolina—all of which were made possible by the Legislature of 1907.

*Cleveland, Ohio, March 4—Penned in narrow hallways, jammed up against doors that only opened inward, between 160 and 170 children in the suburb of North Collinwood to-day were killed by fire, by smoke, and beneath the grinding heels of their panic-stricken playmates.

The awful tragedy occurred this morning in the public school of North Collingwood, 10miles east of this city. At 10 o’clock to-night 165 corpses were in the morgue at Collingwood, six children were still unaccounted for and all the hospitals and houses for two miles around contained numbers of children, some fatally and many less seriously injured.

All of the victims were between 6 and 15 years. The school contained between 310 and 325 pupils, and of the entire number only about 80 are known to have left the building unhurt. It will be several days before the exact number of killed is known as the ruins may still contain other bodies, and the list of fatalities may be increased by a number deaths among the children who are now lying in the hospitals hovering between life and death.

The schoolhouse was of brick, two stories and an attic in height. The number of pupils was more than normally large, and the smaller children had been placed in the upper part of the building. There was but one fire escape and that was in the rear of the building. There were two stairways, one leading to a door in front, and the other to a door in the rear. Both of these doors opened inward, and it is claimed the rear door was locked as well. (From the March 6, 1908 issue of the Durham Record)